Oiselle, a women’s athletic apparel company, plans to open a flagship store located in the University Village of Seattle, WA. The store opening, anticipated in early summer, will bring the Oiselle brand experience to life, and be a home base for its growing community, where fans and customers can attend events and see product firsthand.
The retail store will be just two miles from the brand’s headquarters in Seattle, and it will be located in the University Village, which is hailed as one of the most successful, beautifully designed shopping destinations in the country. The Village is completely unique in its outdoor format that combines natural heavyweights such as J.Crew and Apple along with local favorites such as Molly Moon’s Ice Cream and Fireworks. In addition to being Oiselle’s hometown, Seattle is an ideal first store location as the city is one of the healthiest, most active communities in the U.S.
Leading the retail effort will be Katie Woodruff, Oiselle’s new Retail Operations Director. Woodruff joins Oiselle from Austin, Texas where she gained more than fifteen years’ experience as a merchant, buyer and retail manager for leading businesses such as Mellow Johnny’s, BettySport and a stint at Napa Running Company in California. Most Recently, Woodruff was Merchandise Manager at the Livestrong Foundation. She relocated to Seattle last month and joined the growing staff at Oiselle, where she will contribute her skills and experience to building out the company’s store strategy.
“I am incredibly excited to bring the brand and story of Oiselle to life in a beautiful retail environment,” states Woodruff. “Our vision is to create a place where customers can experience the fit and feel of our product, but also to be a place where our friends, family and teammates can come together it will be a hub for viewing big meets and races, having speakers, and being a place for local groups. Involving the community is the best way to build community.”
Oiselle’s move to brick and mortar is in step with a growing trend among retailers (some of which were exclusively online) that now realize the power of an omni-channel strategy, or one that offers a consistent experience to customers across all access points. The Oiselle store is also an ideal step for the brand in its development. With its approach of thoughtfully aggressive growth, Oiselle now has the benefit of an avid community and customer base looking to experience the brand first hand. Unique to the store will be candid, behind-the-scenes product information as well as new ways to share the store experience that play to Oiselle’s strength in social media.
The Oiselle store product assortment revolves around design-oriented, technical workout apparel that is signature to the brand. Incorporating design elements to their popular fabrics including the Lux, deemed the “runner’s cashmere,” the Flyte wicking seamless collection, its newly minted and highly successful Wazzie Wool collection, new outerwear, swimwear, and the ever popular running bottoms. Amongst the brand’s seasonal collection will be curated brands and companies that Oiselle believes in and supports.
The store opening will be in early Summer (exact date to follow) and will be celebrated by Oiselle employees, flock members and elite women athletes including Kara Goucher, 2x Olympic Marathoner and 10k Bronze Medalist; Lauren Fleshman, 2x USA 5k Champion; Stephanie Bruce, top U.S. marathoner; and Britney Henry, top U.S. Hammer Thrower.
“For a young company, this is a dream come true. I believe in brands, and creating an immersive experience. A store is the ultimate opportunity to do that. In addition to product, it offers so much more in terms of sharing the sport we love. Our first and most important goal is to make this store perfect, but long-term, we see that this may be a stepping stone to multiple stores in key markets,” states Sally Bergesen, Oiselle’s Founder & CEO.
